Walk Sleep Repeat

I started listening to this to get motivated to hike & camp the WHW for the 3rd time and while it definitely set the mood for the great glens and beautiful scenery, I found the hero of this story more and more bothersome as his journey went on. We’re the same age, I thought… we’ve the same idea of rambling for peace and fun, same idea of solo camping the way, heck he even claims to be vegetarian which I’ve been for 20 years, etc, Stephen’s journey seemed like it would the perfect motivational listen for a gal who’s said goodbye to her 30s. But WHO in their right mind carries around the heaviness of a tent, sleeping bag, gear etc the entire way and never uses it(!) as he splurges on hotels every night while complaining of legs aching (could it be the weight mayhaps?) or blaming it on his age. SPOILER No wait, I take it back because he did camp at least one night but was conveniently eaten alive by yet unidentified mystery insects and used it as an excuse to avoid further camping. I really thought the line in the book description of avoiding sleeping in a tent WHILE backpacking was a joke. I suppose it’s meant to be endearing that this man who complains of being so poor his car barely starts is carrying this heavy burden on his back (for no apparent reason) and splurging hundreds of pounds on hotels. Maybe if that money was spent on lighter gear with, say, insect netting in his tent and a comfortable sleep pad etc he wouldn’t complain on the impossibility of sleeping outside all the while showing pride in how cheap all his kit is and his inability to understand spending money on said gear. There are baggage transfer services, Stephen. Why even kid yourself. Anyhow, this was not the book I was expecting. There was a smidge of humour here but mostly it was the story of an ill prepared irrational human being burning money with the pretension of being an outdoorsman while hiking which is a long, yet undeniably easy walk. That said, I suppose it has succeeded in motivation because if this bumbling man carrying who know how many useless kilograms of curdled Wheetabix drinks can somehow make it to the end so can anyone, really. So thank you for that Stephen.